Herndon Softball Drops District Game to Chantilly

The Herndon Hornets (7-4) and Chantilly Chargers (8-3) met with identical softball records of 7-3 Tuesday to determine who would improve its chance at a better district seeding for the looming playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, Alex Sallberg pitched a huge game on the mound for the Chargers to shut out the Hornets and improve her team record to 8-3 to take the district advantage with the win, 5-0.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Herndon lost focus as Chantilly rallied at the plate with three big hits with two outs. Laura Conghan crushed a 185-foot double off the wall and Wendy Sloan advanced her to third base with a single up the middle. O’Brien came up big at bat once again with a two RBI single to seal the game at 5-0.

However, controversy surrounds the matter of whether Sallberg pitched a ‘no-hitter’ or not against Herndon. Chantilly head coach Carmen Wise said her star pitcher did throw a no-hitter and counted Herndon’s two on-base singles as errors.

“Our pitcher [Alex Sallberg] pitched a no-hitter, perfect game and pitched under 60 pitches and we’re very happy with her performance.”

Herndon coach Roy Amps said his team recorded the singles as hits for his Hornets.

“It was either one or two hits, but it was not a ‘no-hitter.’ Our score keeper is going to turn it in and their score keeper is going to turn it in.”

Patch has inquired a ruling from Chantilly’s athletic director to confirm an official ruling on the matter. Herndon Athletic Director Mike Mahoney said he believes the home team scorekeeping is official, which in this case would be Chantilly.

Herndon’s Michelle Le pitched solid through the first four innings with four strikeouts. Yet, the defense had trouble communicating and allowed some manageable balls to squeak through the infield while the offense struggled against Sallberg.

“At first we struggled a bit with the outside balls but then once we got the hang of it we started hitting harder,” Le said. “We just need more talking around the field, but I feel we did pretty well.”

Sallberg struck out five Hornets and staying ahead in the count for the majority of her six innings pitched.

The game stood scoreless in the third inning until Charger freshman Bryanna Kerbuski hit an RBI single for would prove to be the winning run with two outs to take a 1-0 lead.

Destinee Beckham hit what Herndon’s scorekeeper recorded as a single in the fourth inning to give the Hornets a chance to score. However, Sallberg would retire the inning and end Herndon’s hope of getting on the scoreboard.

Coach Amps said Beckham has improved her batting game and the team will take each day as it comes as playoffs approach.

“She’s [Beckham] getting better at it and she’s going to keep working,” Amps said. “One game at a time and focus on hitting. Today was kind of an off day mentally but normally defensively, we have been playing really well.”

Herndon plays at home against Westfield on April 27 at 6:30 p.m. We'll update this story when we find out more details on whether or not the game was indeed a no-hitter.